In Your Year rear End

NEXT !

(For R.B)

The wonderful life Christmas is over
One tries not to be depressed.
Maybe re-read Brautigan’s piece
From 1963
Where he and his friend were
so depressed over Kennedy’s public execution
that they took pictures
of discarded Christmas trees
abandoned in the gutter
and then proceeded to get drunk
while watching a slide show of them later.

I get that.

All those rolls of left over wrapping paper
all about the place.
The lights that need to be taken down
before the neighbors start with
the “white trash” wisecracks

One thing you can say about Christmas
in this post modern area
Once it’s over ?
It’s dead.

A lot of build up.
A product orgy climax

And the day after ?
Forget about you

The day after Christmas
is like nailing a wood screw
into the back of an old friend
Who shows up once a year for a visit.

And as he walks out the door.
You slam and lock it on his heels
Hissing, “and don’t come back till next year,
You pain-in the-ass bastard.”

*
Thankful ?
Sure.

This year I was thankful I didn’t end up
in the paraplegic chair
in a nursing home in Baldwin
after that nasty fall
down the Cold War stairs
back in your hometown
that ended up with you
kissing some concrete.

Instead I made it back here on Christmas Eve.
Just in time to have a good cry
With Alastair Sims.